War of the Worlds: Post-9/11 Cinema

In what ways can War of the Worlds be considered post-9/11 cinema?

There are many ways that War of the Worlds can be considered post-9/11 because of the allegorical ideas represented in the film, furthermore the fact that Steven Spielberg 'uses 9/11 to ramp up the horror factor' just shows that he anted to get across a 9/11 perception in this film. There are many visual references that Spielberg uses that are familiar to the audience, for example the grey smoke was used purposely to connote the grey ash/smoke cloud that covered New York and when watching this scene people are reminded of the 9/11 attacks. Spielberg said 'our story starts with paranoia', this is a reference to 9/11 because after the attacks on the World Trade Centre people were afraid that they could get attacked at any moment and the fear of not knowing made them paranoid.




The media sequence in War of the Worlds can be considered post-9/11 because of the plane that crashed. The plane is a visual reference towards 9/11 as it symbolises the planes that flew into the World Trade Centre, this brings back the audiences memories tapping into their feelings, making them remember what happened on that day of the attack. When the media turn up they show Ray the attacks, this links to the real event as on 9/11 the media was the main source of information, so in the film the media were the only people who could inform Ray about the scale of the true attacks. After the encounter with the media Ray is shaken up, making him more paranoid and even more afraid. This is a reference towards 9/11 because once people heard about the true nature of the attack they became more paranoid waiting for an attack that might or might not come again. The fact the word 'them' is constantly repeated shows that they're alienated an seen as "others". Like in 9/11, the terrorists were seen as "others" as people feared them.